Supporting Struggling Small Businesses
The pandemic and Covid-19 mitigations began inflicting immense damage to many small businesses in March of 2020. Thousands of small businesses initially applied for Illinois Business Interruption Grants. While these grants helped some small businesses, approximately 80% of eligible small businesses which applied were not awarded a grant.
Subsequently, Illinois received over 8 billion dollars in American Rescue Plan Act funds. However, only $250 million were allocated for Back to Business grant program. These funds will likely be exhausted before many struggling and eligible businesses receive grants.
Illinois still has billions of federal funds and should replenish the Back to Business grant program with an additional $300 million. Our policymakers should not pick winners and loses when there is adequate funding to support the struggling small businesses.
House Bill HB5489 will allocate an additional $300 million for the Back to Business grant program. Please ask your legislators to support this legislation so that struggling small businesses can receive the support they need to recover from a pandemic, and associated mitigations, which they could not control.
2021 SBAC Small Business Pitch Throwdown Photos
Thank you to everyone who participated in the 2021 SBAC Small Business Pitch Throwdown on December 2nd at Workbox! We had a blast watching the finalists pitch their business with a hearty CONGRATULATIONS to this year’s winner, Mycocycle!! Special thank you to Kristi Ross for being such an inspiration and giving some incredible business advice…
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Policymakers must focus on reducing property taxes in 2022
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